The Gospel of Luke is about concern for the poor.Luke has a sense of the hidden life of Mary.The repentant tend to join a hidden rather
than braggadocio life, tend to be the victims rather than the perpetrators.These readings mean that the Faithful can rejoice that their perpetrators can
find repentance and reconciliation with their God.Abuse makes a reasonable focus for these
readings.

The readings for this Sunday suit an examination of various
vocations.One vocation, that of the
military, is particularly striking.While
some of the Faithful may have little or no contact with soldiers, everyone has
contact with the police, a type of local soldier.I do have a professional interest in police
work in Black communities.

The term police
brutality connotes a bias against the police, whereas excessive use of force is the language the police themselves would
use.What if the Faithful are the
police? Can the Faithful recognize themselves using excessive force, for
example in child or spousal abuse? Alternatively, in the abuse of those whom
they are trusted to serve as healers or teachers or builders or sales people?

This is the only place in scripture that gives directions
for how the police and military are to act. The context is repentance,
repentance required to stay among the People of God and to enter the Kingdom.
Since the Faithful frequently confess to having lost their tempers, a
meditation on excessive use of force seems appropriate.

In pre-Vatican II, this was known as gaudete Sunday, gaudete
meaning rejoice. Advent is past the
mid-point. To translate this for the Faithful via the police, a rejoicing police
officer has no time to complain or feel sorry for himself. A rejoicing police
officer has no time or need for extortion, false accusation, or dissatisfaction
with wages.

Douay-Rheims
(1582-1610):(17) The Lord thy
God in the midst of thee is mighty, he will save: he will rejoice over thee with gladness, he will be silent in his love, he
will be joyful over thee in praise.
(18) The triflers that were departed from the law, I will gather together,
because they were of thee: that thou mayest no more suffer reproach for them.

King James (1611):(17) The LORD thy God in
the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. (18) I will
gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to
whom the reproach of it was a burden.

Jerusalem
(1966):(17) Yahweh
your God is in your midst,

a
victorious warrior.

He
will exult with joy over you,

he
will renew you by his love,

he
will dance with shouts of joy for
you,

(18)
as on a day of festival.

I
have taken away your misfortune,

No
longer need you bear the disgrace of it.

New American (1970):(17)
The LORD, your God, is in your midst,

A
mighty savior;

He
will rejoice over you with gladness,

And
renew you in his love

He
will sing joyfully because of you,

(18)as one sings at festivals.

I
will remove disaster from among you,

So
that none may recount your disgrace

New Jerusalem (1985): (17) Yahweh your God is there with you,

The warrior-Saviour.

He
will rejoice over you with happy
song,

he
will renew you by his love,

he
will dance with shouts of joy for
you,

(18)
as on a day of festival.

I
have taken away your misfortune,

No
longer need you bear the disgrace if it.

Dance catches the
spirit of the verse.

Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6 (6)

The Lectionary uses this passage in the following
places:

ReadingsPage inVerses
used

Lectionary

9C452-3, 4,5-6 (6)The
readings for today.

21B1302-3,
4bcd, 5-6 (3)The Baptism of the Lord

41ABC3322-3,
4,5-6 (3)Easter Sunday—Easter Vigil

Only the reading for The Baptism of the Lord recognizes that
verse 4a is missing.

Verse 6 sets
the tone for these readings.

verse (6)Cry out with joy and gladness: for among
you is the great and Holy One of Israel.

Philippians 4:4-7

verse 4Rejoice in the Lord always.

I
shall say it again: rejoice!

verse 5aYour kindness should be known to all.

The Vulgate (circa 410):Modestia
vestra nota sit omnibus hominibus.

Douay-Rheims (1582-1610):Let your moderation be
known to all men.

King James(1611):Let your moderation be known unto all men.

Jerusalem
(1966):Let your tolerance be evident to everyone:

New American (1970):Your
kindness should be known to all.

New Jerusalem (1985):Let
your good sense be obvious to
everybody.

Good sense makes
the most sense.

A scholar cites this verse as part of a peroration, or
staccato conclusion, looking for a decision based on the previous argument.[2]Rejoice.

Isaiah 61:1 (cited in Luke4:18)

verse 3:4Prepare the way of the Lord, make
straight his paths

Luke 3:10-18

Luke, in this
Advent Season, writes of good works emanating from repentance rightly placed.
Being of the Chosen People or of the Elect is not enough either to remain among
the Chosen People or to enter the Age to Come. The sense of repentance bears
scrutiny.[3]

These directions of John
the Baptizer may be taken as from Jesus
too because a scholar regards it as likely that, for a time, Jesus was a disciple of John.
The scholar also regards what happened as historically accurate, rather than a
Christian interpolation into the original event. John
seems to come from the tradition of the Pharisees and Essenes, people
displeased with how the Jewish priesthood maintained the Temple. Later, when Jesus
cleanses the Temple
of the moneychangers, the clergy plot to kill him.[4] The
possibility of forgiveness through repentance is reason to rejoice.

verse 10The
crowds asked John the Baptist,

“What should we do?”

He
said to them in reply,

“whoever
has two cloaks

should
share with the person who has none.

The grammarian points out that those better off did have two cloaks that they used as
undergarments. Tunics may be a better
translation.

The Vulgate (circa 410):tunicas

Douay-Rheims (1582-1610):tunics

King James(1611):coats

Jerusalem
(1966):tunics

New American (1970):cloaks

New Jerusalem (1985):tunics

verse 12aEven tax collectors came

The Vulgate (circa 410):Venerunt autem et publicani

Douay-Rheims (1582-1610):And publicans also
came to be baptized

King James(1611):Then came
also publicans to be baptized

Jerusalem
(1966):There were tax collectors too who came for baptism

New American (1970):Even
tax collectors came to be baptized

New Jerusalem (1985):There
were tax collectors, too, who came
for baptism

The different translations indicate that the translators did
not think their readers would grasp that publicans were tax collectors.

verse 14Soldiers
also asked him,

“And
what is it that we should do?”

verse 13He told
them,

“Do
not practice extortion,

do
not falsely accuse anyone,

and
be satisfied with your wages.”

Those are three very specific directions for fulfilling
one’s vocation in the military, a vocation many on this VirginiaPeninsula
engage.

Knowing how to repent and having specific directions would
be the reason to rejoice in these
readings. Knowing that God will accept repentance is reason to rejoice. Zephaniah brings on the sense
that God is glad to know the Faithful, one by one, a reason to rejoice. Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One
of Israel, Isaiah 12: (6), the responsorial, means that, in the new
dispensation, God takes up his abode in the New Jerusalem, the individual souls
of each of the Faithful, reason aplenty to rejoice.
Not only is God present subjectively, but also objectively in the souls of
others. That objective presence, mainly in the Church, helps subjects ground
their connection with God realistically. Luke,
like an old friend, is there to tell the Faithful how to go about their hidden
lives, rejoicing in the Lord who
takes delight in the hidden recesses of souls.

The Faithful cannot avoid sin and can hardly avoid sins of
excessive use of force, even passive-aggressiveness. Sorrow for sin, even at
the end of life, when nothing else but sorrow can serve as a remedy is an
acceptable repentance. That is reason to rejoice.

For more on sources, besides the footnotes, see the Appendix
file.

[1] General
Editor, The Reverend CainHopeFelder,
Ph.D., The Original African Heritage Study Bible: King James
Version (Nashville: The James C. Winston Publishing Company, 1993)
18.